East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[Davexoc]

Work on Whaddon Road - Mursley seems to have been suspended for Easter, the road is open. A surfaced access to the work site has been added, but nothing appears to have been done to the bridge parapets yet. Guess it will close again as Google is still saying closed until May 21.

Little Horwood - Mursley road is fully open now without traffic light controls.

[1E BoY]

Another large crane was in the process of being assembled this afternoon.

 

Last week a large lorry was negotiating the roundabout into Water Eaton Road from the Buckingham direction with two very large concrete beams on it.

[Davexoc]

Matrix sign on H8/Buckingham Road is warning of coming closure, but I don't think it is this month. May Bank Holiday blockade on WCML for those cranes to lift the beams into place??

[1E BoY]

The second large crane was fully assembled by this afternoon.

 

The white crane in the second picture was gently lowering a metal crate (I am sure they have a more technical term and will leave it to the civil engineers on here to explain it better) between the walls which will no doubt be covered in concrete at some stage.

[jamie92208]

26 minutes ago, 1E BoY said:

The second large crane was fully assembled by this afternoon.

 

The white crane in the second picture was gently lowering a metal crate (I am sure they have a more technical term and will leave it to the civil engineers on here to explain it better) between the walls which will no doubt be covered in concrete at some stage.

It looks like some sort of rebar cage to me.

 

Jamie

[Mike Storey]

15 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It looks like some sort of rebar cage to me.

 

Jamie

 

You must have the eyesight of an eagle, but I feel sure that is the most logical thing.

[jamie92208]

37 minutes ago, Mike Storey said:

 

You must have the eyesight of an eagle, but I feel sure that is the most logical thing.

I was once told that I must have eyes like a sh1thouse rat will that do.

 

Jamie

[Davexoc]

Heard on the radio this morning a NR ad stating that the WCML would be closed over the May Day Holiday weekend. A bit of heavy lifting coming up then....

[adanapress]

Afternoon Gentlemen,   what news is there of any serious work going on elsewhere along the line?

[Nearholmer]

Its now busy all the way from Bletchley to Claydon Junction, very many different work-faces. The track-bed is now beginning to look like a railway-in-waiting, multiple bridges are being or have been re-furbished, rebuilt, or built-anew. There is also a stack of work going on at Claydon in readiness I think for the HS2 depot, and there have been some huge stone trains coming from Westbury, presumably carrying either ballast or make-up material for HS2. Its "all go", unless you are driving or cycling, in which case it is "all stop", due to the ever-shifting road and path closures.

[rodent279]

I've driven along the A41 between Bicester and Aylesbury quite a few times over the last few months, going to & from Leighton Buzzard, a couple of times via Whitchurch & Cublington into Wing. Most of the stretch between about Woodham (where the GC Grendon Underwood-Ashendon line crosses the A41), through Waddesdon, to virtually Aylesbury, is a series of building sites.

[Bernard Lamb]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Its now busy all the way from Bletchley to Claydon Junction, very many different work-faces. The track-bed is now beginning to look like a railway-in-waiting, multiple bridges are being or have been re-furbished, rebuilt, or built-anew. There is also a stack of work going on at Claydon in readiness I think for the HS2 depot, and there have been some huge stone trains coming from Westbury, presumably carrying either ballast or make-up material for HS2. Its "all go", unless you are driving or cycling, in which case it is "all stop", due to the ever-shifting road and path closures.

Would they go via Aylesbury?

The other day I cycled out over marsh LC and the bells and lights started as I approached. I expected the usual short DMU but along came a 66 with a very long train of wagons.

Bernard

[jamie92208]

37 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Would they go via Aylesbury?

The other day I cycled out over marsh LC and the bells and lights started as I approached. I expected the usual short DMU but along came a 66 with a very long train of wagons.

Bernard

A quick look at freight scheduled via Aylesbury on Real Time trains shows several as required paths forvtrains from Tytherington to Calvert. 

 

Jamir

[lmsforever]

The tree removal at Hartwell outside of Aylesbury on the A413 is progressing fast with virtually all of them felled  and work is progressing with prep work for the bridge.It has happened at a fast rate and has transformed our area into a building site but it seems three years and it will have been completed.

Edited April 18, 2021 by lmsforever
wrong subject list

[lmsforever]

Sorry but this post should have been in HS2   not this one  .

[Ron Ron Ron]

9 hours ago, adanapress said:

Afternoon Gentlemen,   what news is there of any serious work going on elsewhere along the line?

 

Work has started on the HS2 bridge over the East West rail line, at Calvert.

Piling work started recently, for the bridge foundations.

 

 

 

 

New EW rail bridge at Winslow...

 

 

 

More, from other locations....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[corneliuslundie]

Is that a new bridge with a height restriction - the yellow/black chevrons? Very surprising that it was permitted if it is.

Jonathan

[Arun Sharma]

1 hour ago, lmsforever said:

The tree removal at Hartwell outside of Aylesbury on the A413 is progressing fast with virtually all of them felled  and work is progressing with prep work for the bridge.It has happened at a fast rate and has transformed our area into a building site but it seems three years and it will have been completed.

Did you mean A418 rather than A413?

[jamie92208]

43 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Is that a new bridge with a height restriction - the yellow/black chevrons? Very surprising that it was permitted if it is.

Jonathan

Looking at it it would probably be classed as a repair rather than a new build so they would be able to replace like for like as the line was technically still open.

 

Jamir

[Ron Ron Ron]

48 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Looking at it it would probably be classed as a repair rather than a new build so they would be able to replace like for like as the line was technically still open.

 

Jamir

It looks like it’s been raised by at least 800mm or so.

 

 

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[Michael Hodgson]

The route of the extension to Cambridge is getting a little closer to being decided.   I have a copy of an East West Rail consultation paper running to 22 pages which was mailed (unsolicited) to residents of Cambourne and presumably many other places in the area. 

 

Section A is Oxford - Bicester (improvements to existing stations and services), the subject of this thread.  Bicester to Bletchley isn't mentioned apart from a brief reference to unspecified improvements at Bletchley

 

Section B is Bicester - Bedford (upgrade to existing route - "improvements" to intermediate stations which mean either

• keep existing hourly stopping service and add passing loops to allow 4 fast EWR trains an hour to overtake, or
• reduce from 9 intermediate stations to 5, relocating/merging all of them, two fast and two all stations trains an hour  

In both cases Ridgmont station (also home to the ugly portacabin type signalbox now controlling the line) will be relocated

 

Section C is Bedford. 

• Moving Bedford St Johns to one of two new sites,
• rebuilding Bedford station and
• a new route out of town towards the north east (Clapham Green)

Section D is thence to the Eversdens, 

 

Nine potential new route alignments had been proposed and these have been narrowed down to five.  The ECML would be crossed at a new interchange station

• St Neots South (preferred) or
• one of two sites near Tempsford

It would run either

• adjacent to the A428 which is currently being upgraded between Caxton Gibbet and Black Cat Roundabout, or
• over a longer and more northerly route (preferred) to a new Cambourne station located
  • to the south west of the new town or
  • to the north west (preferred because of further new housing plans)

Section E Harlton to Hauxton connects the above by means of a new junction with the existing Shepreth branch (Kings Cross- Cambridge line)

 

Section F Great Shelford to Cambridge, quadrupling between Shepreth Branch Junction and Cambridge, with additional platforms and  a proposed new station at Cambridge South (this should be very convenient for Addenbrookes & Papworth Hospitals) 

 

Consultation closes on 9th June.  Further info on their site,  eastwestrail.co.uk

[Edwin_m]

The big surprise in this consultation is that they propose to add two new tracks east of the existing from Bedford Station to the northern edge of the town, which affects several dozen houses either by demolition or by reducing their gardens.  

[lmsforever]

12 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

Did you mean A418 rather than A413?

Yes complete bockage of thought.

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, Edwin_m said:

The big surprise in this consultation is that they propose to add two new tracks east of the existing from Bedford Station to the northern edge of the town, which affects several dozen houses either by demolition or by reducing their gardens.  

The paper does say they will minimise the extent of such effects, but realistically they can't take the more northerly route without making compulsory purchases somewhere that will upset some folk. 

That bit of the route is in all of the options still under discussion, even the more southerly routes.  There may for all I know have been even bigger impact if they came out of Bedford further to the south.

I had been expecting Cambourne South to be favoured, but housing is currently under construction just south of Caxton Gibbet where I would have expected them to put it.  There is a much more new housing planned a little further north, so the Cambourne North option does now look the more viable of these. 

[Ron Ron Ron]

42 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

Yes complete bockage of thought.

  

Anither  typoo!

 

 

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